Parking meters providing unattended sale of space usage or parking time for a plurality of parking spaces are well known and widely used in off-street parking lots for cars and trucks. These meters are mechanical devices in the form of a box having a plurality of numbered slots corresponding to the numbered parking spaces in the lot. The customer drives into the lot and parks in an available parking space. He then proceeds to the parking meter box and deposits money in the numbered slot corresponding to his parking space.
Periodic checks are made to assure that customers are in fact paying for parking. Various techniques are used, and are typically based upon a check sheet which the checker fills out as he inventories the lot and then checks this against the money deposited in the parking meter box. Subsequent checks are made, updating the check sheet and rechecking the box.
While these prior parking meters have been useful for their intended purposes, the present invention relates to improvements thereover.